Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any other fandom I manage to squeeze in this story.
ooooooooooooooo
Lightning Dragon's Roar
A Harry Potter Fanfiction
By Zero Rewind
© 2015
ooooooooooooooo
Chapter 55: Boss Battle
The Lightning Dragon descended from the skies with the roar of thunder, slamming into Voldemort's position with incredible speed and enough force to demolish entire farmlands.
The man had already apparated away, but his pet snake, well...
Nagini's wail of agony only lasted a second, before being completely smothered by the powerful attack, along with everything around it.
Giants, loup-garous, wizards; they were all swept away in the explosion of force caused by the Lightning coming down from the heavens, tearing through the area with as much power as multiple Fiendfyres.
I looked around me, at all the devastation I had caused. The crater I stood in wasn't as big as the one I had created during the fight at Azkaban prison— it made sense, considering that particular storm had built up a lot of energy over the decades; but that was like saying the Moon wasn't as big as the Earth, really.
A marginal difference of size, but still out-shined anything I was currently capable of in terms of pure destructive power.
Electricity flared wildly around me, lashing out at anything and everything it could even reach. I heard the feeble cries of those who were unlucky enough— or lucky enough, depending on your perspective— to be standing at the edges of my attack.
The rain stopped. The clouds cleared.
The smell of burning flesh wafted into my nose, but I forced that feeling into the back of my mind, locking it away.
Nagini was dead. The snake's body had been reduced to a crisp, while everything else had been completely obliterated. It spoke a lot about the Horcrux's capability of withstanding such power.
But, everything had a breaking point. You just had to figure out how much pressure to use.
So, it was worthy of note: Kirin was more than enough to destroy Horcruxes.
At any rate...
That was the last soul piece. Only Voldemort remained.
I steeled myself; there was a war to finish.
"Harry Potter." I heard that cold, high voice again. I turned my head to see the source of the magical community's fear, its pain.
A Giant leapt from behind the Dark Lord, intending on smashing me in one hit with large, downward swing of its humongous spiked club.
"Voldemort." I greeted, electric energy still swirling in the crater.
I frowned, and forced it to condense into a single point, before launching it to the Giant's torso. The incredibly white Lightning ball impacted against the monster's form, erupting with a powerful flash and a booming bellow of pain—cut short suddenly, and replaced by a choking noise and a crash at my feet— from the Giant.
The club flew from its hand, smashing into the ground behind me with a loud thud and a slight crack.
When the light faded and the dust settled, the Giant was lying face down on the ground, a pool of blood forming quickly underneath the creature.
I hopped onto its head to avoid the flood of blood that came, not wanting to dirty my boots, or my new coat. I was already mostly covered in loup-garou blood— trying to clean it hadn't worked at all— so, adding Giant's blood to that would not be very wise.
"I did not expect you to be here so soon." The Dark Lord said as if I hadn't even dispatched a Giant in one shot, floating over the destruction with a calm look on his face.
The Dementors approached the both of us menacingly.
Erebus clattered in his sheath as an atmosphere of doom and gloom permeated in the air around us. A bone deep chill could be felt in the air, but it was a chill I had grown immune to, with Erebus as my Devil Arm.
Erebus, the progenitor of Dementors…
"Hey, could you do me a favor and tell your kids to shove off?" I asked pleasantly, glancing at the beings in question.
Voldemort scoffed in irritation, mistaking the request as an insult to his attire, comprising of black robes. "The Dementors are not my—"
"Of course." Erebus wheezed, and I drew the Falchion out with a loud metal shing. Voldemort paused in mid-air, suddenly wary of me. "But you'll have to release me to do it."
"Take as long as you need. Just get it done." I said, throwing the blade up high, the black metal gleaming as it spun around in the air, becoming engulfed by a black power, that of Darkness itself.
Out of the blackness, floated a figure I had seen before, back at Temen Ni Gru. Erebus' true form, with its black shroud and bony white body.
I looked up at it, and it snarled back, glad to be free of its cage for once.
"Give me the space I need to kill this fucker, once and for all. After that, I want you to protect my friends until I come back." I ordered.
"...As you wish." It obeyed, before addressing the Dementors around it. "Hop to it, kids."
And just like that, the Dementors turned on their former allies, swooping down on every Death Eater and Dark Lord sympathizer they could find, giving each and every one of them a kiss— their last kiss.
It was different than how they operated. Dementors were sloppy, slow. They enjoyed taking their time with their prey— not this time; this time, they obeyed Erebus' orders to kill every last one of the Death Eaters.
It was quick, and it was absolutely devastating.
I pulled out my wand, and held it to my neck. "Sonorus."
"Listen, and listen well!" I yelled, my voice carrying on as far as the spell could take it. "The time for forgiveness is over! We have given them their chance to repent— fourteen years ago! Guess what?! They didn't do it! They still stand before us, as proud Death Eaters, as proud predators of those who can't defend themselves!"
"They killed our friends, our loves, our comrades." I said in a softer tone, before steeling myself. "I won't give you a speech on justice, or Good against Evil. No… I'm here for vengeance."
I shot a bolt of Lightning up in the air as a sort of beacon of hope— or whatever they wanted to see it as.
"Are you ready?" I shouted, Lightning gathering around me, suffusing every cell in my body. "Let's wipe this scum off of the face of the Earth!"
I could hear the roars of those who supported me in the distance, so strong that I was surprised for a moment. I cancelled the spell with a wave of my wand, before addressing Voldemort himself.
"Quite the rousing monologue." The pale man said with a smirk, lightly gazing at the wand in his hand. Dumbledore's wand. The fabled Elder Wand that could beat any other wand in existence.
"I'm surprised you didn't attack me during that little speech." I answered, taking a few steps to the right and assessing my opponent's every move.
"…" He paused for a moment, before addressing me once more. "I want there to be no doubt, as to who is the most powerful among the wizards. I will not kill you, as I have promised. I will cripple you beyond anything you can imagine, and leave you to live the rest of your days in a pathetic state."
The fact that he said that so calmly caused a shiver to run through my spine, but I forced a challenging smirk on my face, popped open a Strengthening Solution I had grabbed during his monologue, and drank the contents in one quick gulp.
Instantly, I felt the effects of the potion take hold; my muscles spasmed ever so slightly, before a rush of energy flooded into my body, mixing in with the Lightning and increasing my strength fivefold.
I smashed my foot down, the boot easily cracking the dead Giant's sturdy skull—the thickest bone in its body, considering the fact it didn't have much of a brain.
"Do your worst."
I dug my feet in, and launched myself at the murdering bastard, not seeing the fact that my leap destroyed the Giant's head entirely. I reached the Dark Lord in a split second, a hastily formed Edge already flying through his stomach with ease— wait.
There was no blood, no feeling of flesh giving way, no sound from him whatsoever.
That meant only one thing.
Illusion!
I raised my right arm to cover my face as quickly as I could— just in time, I felt a large slab of stone impact against it and send me spinning off to the side.
The sensations were jarring and somewhat dizzying, but I managed to keep hold of my senses, planting my foot in midair and storing all of my momentum in my calves.
With my greatly enhanced senses, I was able to pinpoint the Dark Lord's location in a fraction of a second and then I launched myself at the wizard once again, taking him by surprise with another Edge.
He tried to dodge, but couldn't summon the necessary speed. He managed to position himself to the side so that I could only do minimal damage. This time, I heard the sound of flesh and bone being torn apart, before flying past the man.
I didn't take the time to admire what little damage I had done, instead choosing to launch a flurry of Lightning Blades at the wizard, hoping to finish this off quickly.
Metal rods rose from the earth in response to my attack.
I watched with slight surprise as the Lightning Blades lost their cohesion, before changing their course and being absorbed by the metal, before being sent into the ground, dissipating their energy entirely.
"Lightning." Voldemort's voice cut through my thoughts as the man turned to me, waving his wand over his missing fingers— the ones I had ripped off with Edge— silver ones emerging from the bloody stumps.
"An incredibly powerful element, to be sure, but its weakness is quite simple."
I felt a pit settle deep within my stomach.
"Your Lightning Dragonslayer magic is ineffective against my powers." Voldemort took a threatening step forward. "You have lost."
I narrowed my eyes. Without my Lightning Dragonslayer magic, I wouldn't be able to beat him. My wand magic, while good, was nowhere near the man's level.
This was indeed a precarious situation; Erebus was busy keeping the rest of the Death Eaters and various followers of Voldemort out of this fight, and my Lightning was all but useless.
What could I do?
It was as if the man had erased months' worth of training in a few seconds.
What chance did I have?
§He might have negated the power of your long ranged strikes.§ Balthazar interrupted my despairing thoughts. §But your short ranged moves should be fine. Don't forget that you also possess my powers.§
§Who is speaking?§ Voldemort said, looking around. §Show yourself!§
I took a long, steadying breath.
Balthazar was right. I didn't have access to use my Roar, my Halberd or my Blades, but I could still use Edge, and my wand could substitute for my long ranged attacks.
I dashed towards the Dark Lord, flanking him from the right in an attempt to take him by surprise, launching a salvo of curses with my wand as I neared his position.
He batted away my spells disdainfully, before coating the earth in a sheet of ice.
I immediately noticed the subtle attempt at tripping me up, a trick Dumbledore had used so many times on me that I knew how to counter it easily, and changed directions suddenly, leaping to his left and lashing out with a Lightning enhanced kick to his sternum.
Voldemort snarled and waved his wand in such quick motions I would not have seen them had I not been channeling Lightning into my nerves.
Three things happened. The ground beneath me was transfigured into quicksand, catching the first foot that planted itself into the ground— in this case, my left foot.
A blue light erupted from the dark wizard's wand, flying to me in what seemed to be a corkscrew manner— a piercing spell of some sort, most likely. And behind it, was a wide area fire spell meant to overcome me if I managed to avoid the piercer.
I kicked off of the air pulling myself out of the quicksand and out of the range of the corkscrew spell, before swishing my wand at the incoming flames. "Aguamenti!"
I instinctively knew that without Erebus' help, I could not hope to stop a jet of flames this intense even with me spraying water on it.
So, instead, I drenched myself in water, and cloaked myself in my Lightning before dashing through the flames, emerging on the other side with what amounted to be a sun burn judging by the redness of my skin.
The piercing spell that I sent as I emerged caught Voldemort in the shoulder, going through flesh with a loud squelch as the back of his shoulder burst with blood and slight gore, staining the earth behind him in red.
But he had sent a spell— another piercer— at me, as well. I felt a burning pain in my own shoulder, the spell having struck me at the same time mine had struck him, leaving me no time to dodge.
I hadn't even noticed it until I felt the burning pain of my flesh, and the feeling of warm, sticky blood exiting the wounds.
I immediately applied pressure onto the wound, before channeling my Lightning into it, willing it to hurt me so that it would burn and cauterize the wound. The burning pain intensified into a blinding, stabbing pain, and I couldn't help but let out a loud yell, before stumbling back slightly, out of breath.
I panted, the smell of burning flesh wafting into my sensitive nose, making my stomach churn. Bile rose up through my esophagus but I gulped it back down, unwilling to give Voldemort, who was tending to his own wound in a similar manner, though without any sound— ah, a silencing spell, he definitely looked like he was screaming— any chance whatsoever.
I took a few more breaths, the pain receding slightly as I deadened the flaring nerves around my shoulder so that I could concentrate better on the fight at hand.
"It seems we are at a stalemate, Potter." Voldemort said after he had cancelled the silencing spell. He took a few steps forward, wincing at the strain it put on his wound; he waved his wand, and it seemed as if he had relaxed slightly.
"Very curious." He gazed at my own wound, and his, all the while keeping a close attention on me, making sure I wouldn't suddenly jump him. "It truly is like staring at a mirror version of myself."
My mind reeled at the implication of his statement.
"We just landed similar attacks in similar spots." I answered, denying Tom's claim, not wanting to acknowledge our similarities, anymore. "That doesn't mean anything."
"No. From what I have gathered, we are very much alike." Riddle said, watching me steadily. "I can see it clearly in every move you make, in every word you say. They all scream of a need to prove yourself, of a need to show the world that you aren't what they think of you— a simple schoolboy simply born from a powerful family, reduced to nothing, with no powers to call his own."
Was he talking about me, or him?
"Yes." He continued. "I can see it."
"So what?" I retorted automatically.
"…Potter." Voldemort said with difficulty, actual emotion flitting across his face for the barest of moments. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that he looked at me with some form of sadness.
"This is the final time I make this request of you." Voldemort said quietly. "Join me, and stand at the top of the world of magic by my side. You shall never want for anything."
And for the barest of moments, I actually considered his request. I knew that he killed my parents, and countless other people. I knew that he committed even worse atrocities than murder.
But the look he gave me. The almost heartfelt tone of voice— awkward and disused, evidence of a life lived without much happiness or love, if any…
An image of Dumbledore's shade looking at me with a pained grimace flashed through my mind.
"Dumbledore gave you second chances." I muttered to myself. "Look where that got him."
I looked up to the pale skinned, red eyed wizard, before flaring my power slightly, and taking a threatening step forward.
"My answer is no." I said, readying myself physically and mentally for the assault that would follow.
To his credit, Voldemort didn't attack instantly. He gave me a long, considering look, and said. "So be it."
"Fiendfyre."
Intense, crimson fire erupted from the wizard's wand, forming into a gigantic serpent, hissing gouts of flame in the air. My eyes widened as I felt the heat coming from it all the way over here. I leapt to the right, narrowly dodging the fire snake's sudden lunge that would've taken anyone except me by surprise.
The snake turned sharply, lunging at my form once more. I drenched myself with water, and shielded myself as best as I could with my Lightning as the intense flame creature missed me, again and again.
I might not have been taking direct hits, but the fire's intensity, and the slowly, but gradually thinning, hot air around me was beginning to cause an effect, no matter how slight.
Seeing this, Voldemort merely smiled, waving the Elder Wand once again.
"Fiendlyft." I was blown backwards from the sheer strength of the gusts of wind that had erupted from the Dark wizard's wand, the air around us spinning, spiraling into another snake— this time, made out of wind.
It was barely visible, but thanks to my enhanced sense of smell, and sight, I was able to make its outline. The snake joined its fire sibling in the assault, covering for the cursed flame serpent's mistakes and enhancing its attacks by adding its air to fan the already incredibly intense flames.
I caught some of the attack on my right arm, but the scaled arm was initially so cold that it simply felt like a decidedly hot plate pressing against my skin. If it had hit anywhere else on my body, I would have been burnt to the crisp.
My breathing was beginning to get markedly more difficult, now.
I dodged a combined attack, and rushed to Voldemort, seeing an opening in the man's defenses. That was the weakness of fiend-spells. They were extremely powerful, yes, but they took all of your concentration, which left you susceptible to attack from your target, if he or she ever managed to reach you before you obliterated their body.
"Edge!" I called out as I channeled as much Lightning as I could forming it into a furiously spinning drill which I thrust into Voldemort's heart— except I never made it that far.
The ground below me shook and cracked as a third— yes, a third serpent— erupted from the earth, smacking me away contemptuously. I reined in my power and dropped into a roll, minimizing the fall damage I would suffer.
I got up as quickly as I could, and assessed the situation.
The two cursed fire and wind serpents were already on their way to me, while the earth serpent coiled itself around Voldemort's form, protecting him from any attack I could send his way.
"Fienderthe." Voldemort announced with a smirk. Three fiend-spells. Voldemort was using three of these cursed spells with so much precision and intent that it completely baffled my mind. I remembered Dumbledore's in depth explanation on spells of the fiend-level, after Voldemort had demonstrated his proficiency in Fiendwaeter, during the battle at Azkaban Prison. Dumbledore had said that mastering a single spell of that level required years upon years of practice, and intense concentration. That was just for a single spell. Voldemort was using three fiend-spells simultaneously, with each one in different positions. It was like attempting to hold back three Nundu, while blindfolded, tied up, hung upside down, with a pit of endless, intense flame underneath you.
"Is it hard to bear, Potter?" Voldemort said softly. "My overwhelming power?"
And, with a wave of his wand, he sent the monstrosities once more.
Thus began a battle of attrition that I wasn't sure I could win anymore. My added strength was beginning to fade, and exhaustion from lack of oxygen was beginning to settle in as the cursed air and flame serpents lashed out at me.
I jumped out of the way of the fire snake's rush, taking the wind snake's attack head on, instead. Cuts opened up everywhere on my body, the pain almost too much to bear. I dropped to the ground, panting as both the snakes began to merge into one, a significantly more powerful form than what I was dealing with before.
Worse yet, it doubled in size.
I strained to get up, this time, on the edge of consciousness, judging by the black spots that appeared in my vision.
I coughed, and stumbled, unsteady on my feet.
"So ends the resistance." Voldemort said lightly. "Do you give up, Potter?"
He was asking me to surrender?
Ah, a flash of realization hit me. He didn't want to break the Life Debt he owed me. He couldn't directly kill me, but if I died while fighting against his spells, it was no concern of his. He did his duty by offering me the way out.
Even if I would refuse that offer, no matter what.
I snarled at him, grasping at the last solution available to me.
"If the resistance has to end…" I said, laughing slightly before holding my sides in pain for a few moments. "Then it ends my way, Voldemort."
He wanted to tote around his fiend-spells? Fine.
"Dragon Force."
The words echoed in the battle damaged field with the sudden, familiar powerful pressure that immediately permeated my surroundings. The ground shook slightly, evidenced by the pebbles that rolled away from me.
I felt a sudden rush of power, completely eclipsing anything I had felt prior. My pain faded. My headache ceased.
I stared at my arms for a moment, marveling at the fact that the wounds had stopped bleeding. The wounds themselves were still there, but it was like the transformation was keeping every ounce of blood inside of me— at least until the fight was over, anyway.
There was no time to marvel at myself. The world around me was even slower than before, as I launched myself at Voldemort, tearing through his cursed earth serpent with some difficulty, before driving my arm through his heart in a single thrust.
It all happened so fast.
The action was so sudden, so unexpected by the man that he simply stared at me with unbridled shock. A second passed. Two seconds. Three.
Voldemort dropped forward, coughing out blood, spattering my face and chest.
The fire and wind fiend-serpent— the one that was making a beeline for me, dissipated into nothing but a warm breeze as I ripped my arm out of the hole I'd torn in the man, further exacerbating the wound.
And then, as suddenly as it came, the power of Dragon Force left me.
Instantly, I dropped on all fours beside the fallen dark wizard, trying my best to stay conscious long enough to get help. The pain that had been dulled returned full force. With it, came the exhaustion, the dizziness.
I couldn't help it; I vomited on the spot, before dropping onto my side.
My shoulder burned as my body mercilessly impacted against the earth, shoulder first.
Voldemort was still laying there, on the ground, the look of shock still on his face as he attempted to breathe.
"You have not beaten me, Potter." The man rasped painfully with his one good lung, managing to cling to the world of the living with his willpower alone. "I am immortal!"
"You mean your Horcruxes?" I asked tiredly, one eye already closed. I ignored the man's look of shock and said. "Sorry, I broke all of those. No more resurrections for you."
Shock turned to fear, and then to irrational anger.
"Y—You dare!" Voldemort bellowed out, blood flying out of his mouth and the gaping hole in his chest. "I can't die!"
"Say goodnight." I smirked in satisfaction. "It's over. Just go peacefully."
"Never!" Voldemort snarled, and an enormous amount of power began to build up around him. It was like nothing I had ever felt before; oddly enough, it reminded me of the last moments before an animal struck at its attacker in its most vulnerable moment.
In the throes of death itself, Voldemort found power.
"This is your fault!"
And then he directed that power at me.
"BEGONE!"
The world around me shifted into a dizzying, screeching blue kaleidoscope. I blacked out.